According to health care experts, infectious diseases caused by microbes are responsible for more deaths worldwide than any other single cause. The current estimate of the annual cost of medical care for treating infectious diseases in the United States alone is about $120 billion. While antibiotic treatment is effective for many microbial infections, antibiotic resistance among pathogenic bacteria is a growing health concern. Indeed, the American Medical Association has concluded that, “the global increase in resistance to antimicrobial drugs, including the emergence of bacterial strains that are resistant to all available antibacterial agents, has created a public health problem of potentially crisis proportions.”
Pseudomonas and Klebsiella are two genuses of gram-negative bacteria that pose a significant health risk to infected host organisms, in part, due to their resistance to many antibiotics. These bacteria are noted for causing life-threatening infections, particularly in the lung. Cancer and burn patients also commonly suffer serious Pseudomonas infections, as do certain other individuals with immune system deficiencies. While Klebsiella sp. is responsible for many types of infections, outside of a medical setting, the most common infection caused by Klebsiella bacteria is pneumonia.
There is a need in the art for new antimicrobial therapeutic strategies.